Need help narrowing where to visit/live in NC (Raleigh: apartment, teaching jobs)

[stone21tg]

Thanks to anyone that is able to help me out with information!!!

My girlfriend, dog and myself are considering moving to NC, I originally am from upstate NY and have always considered moving to NC. I have lived in upstate NY for 11yrs, and in MI for 10yrs, I really enjoy the green and outdoor feel of these places, though opted for less extreme weather and moved to Reno NV 7yrs ago, my time here I feel is over and it is time to find a new place that actually feels like home, Reno never has. So I am looking for some help in finding an area of NC that might work well for us.

We both are in the food and beverage industry, she is a server, and I am a server/bartender. we do not need tourist areas to make money so we are not looking for that, we will be looking for a place though where we can get a job and make enough to support ourselves. I have plans to open a cafe/bistro in the next several years so some place that would take to that would be great also. The bistro will be something that will be along our tastes...

we are looking for a place
that has a good artist culture
cultural influence, (european, etc not just various american)
near water, prefer lakes over oceans
lots of natural elements, either forests, mountains, hiking trails, camping options.
freindly people
a place you can relax yet get everything you need if you wish to speed things up.

I dont really care about schools so that plays no importance.

Thanks again for anyone that has any input for us...

[histo320]

Asheville is the place for you. I visited several times and loved every minute of it. There are several small lakes for fishing and walking in the area.

My girlfriend and I are teachers and we are still looking for teaching jobs but I am a Front Desk Clerk and she is a server/bartender, we looked for an apartment, and found jobs within 2 hours of turning in applications.

I think opening a bistro would work well if you do it right. Downtown many restaurants and stores open then close in a few years but if you get a strong base of customers, you should have not problem. From what I've seen, if you advertise, they will come (tourists I mean)

[stone21tg]

I have heard from several people that asheville is a beautiful area. with the research that I have been doing online it seems that either asheville, or winston-salem might fit what we are looking for, though we have a couple friends in Raleigh, and haven't looked at that city yet.

With asheville some things concern me though, like the cost of living, and job situation...though since we are in the service industry it might not be an issue. though the cost of living seems to be one...and I am concerned that asheville might have too small of a feel for us, though the neighboring mountains, hiking, lakes are a huge positive trait for us...

WS seems to fit with what we are interested in, and some are saying that it is changing others are saying it is still in a state of disrepair...

One thing we are interested in for the future is finding an old industrial building and transforming that into our home, i figure that there are probably several possiblities in NC considering the history involved, but does anyone think that the surround ashevill area or WS area would be better to find something like this....